Hanwha Ocean will jointly promote a humanoid robot demonstration project for the shipbuilding industry with South Korean 3D artificial intelligence (AI) technology startup NdotLight and humanoid robot developer A-Robot.
NdotLight and A-Robot stated on June 8 that this collaboration was jointly planned by partners within the NVIDIA Inception Program system, aiming to integrate the technical capabilities of all parties to promote the application of Physical AI and Embodied Intelligence in actual industrial scenarios.
The shipbuilding industry is considered a representative sector for verifying the practical application value of Physical AI and humanoid robots. Currently, the South Korean shipbuilding industry faces a shortage of skilled workers, along with characteristics such as large block handling, complex operation paths, narrow internal spaces of ships, and high-risk area inspections, making full automation difficult for traditional robots.
In this demonstration project, NdotLight will be responsible for building virtual environment data (SimReady Data) containing physical properties and structural information based on the NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim platforms. By repeatedly training and verifying scenarios such as movement, operation, obstacle avoidance, and manipulation in the virtual environment, it aims to reduce the application risks before robots are officially deployed on site.
A-Robot plans to use the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T and SOMA Retargeter platforms to transfer industrial field action data to its humanoid robot “ALICE.” On this basis, it will verify the robot’s ability to perform actual physical tasks at the shipyard, including heavy material handling, autonomous movement, walking on complex terrain, obstacle avoidance, and tool operation.
Through this project, Hanwha Ocean will evaluate the industrialization application prospects of humanoid robots at shipbuilding sites. In the future, application verification of humanoid robots is expected in multiple areas such as hazardous area inspection, repetitive on-site movement, equipment and material transportation, and auxiliary operations.
NdotLight CEO Park Jin-young stated: “To truly apply Physical AI to industrial sites, robots must have a SimReady data infrastructure for learning and verification. We will support the practical application of A-Robot’s humanoid robots at shipbuilding sites through SimReady 3D assets and synthetic data generation technology.”
A-Robot CEO Eom Yoon-seol stated: “At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in January this year, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang prominently featured A-Robot’s humanoid robot ‘ALICE’ as a representative case of Physical AI for welding operations in shipyards during his keynote speech. Going forward, we will leverage NdotLight’s SimReady data infrastructure to further enhance the robot’s application capabilities in industrial settings.”
A source from the South Korean shipbuilding industry stated that from an industry perspective, this move is an important part of South Korean shipbuilders’ efforts to advance the construction of “AI Shipyards.” Compared to the widely used welding robots, painting robots, and automated transport equipment, the biggest advantage of humanoid robots is that they can directly adapt to work environments designed for humans without requiring large-scale modifications to existing shipyard facilities. Therefore, they are considered one of the important future directions for solving the labor shortage problem in the shipbuilding industry.
Founded in 2020, NdotLight’s investors include NAVER D2 Startup Factory, the Korea Development Bank (KDB), and other institutions. Its core focus is on reshaping manufacturing digital efficiency through AI and 3D CAD technology, creating the next-generation industrial ecosystem for robots and Physical AI. The company was selected for the Samsung C-Lab Outside acceleration program, launched South Korea’s first web-based 3D CAD solution NdotCAD for Web in 2023, and won the CES Innovation Award that year.
A-Robot is a humanoid robot startup with investors including Bon Angels Venture Partners, the Korea Development Bank, and others. Its core focus is on the research and development of humanoid and service robots, dedicated to building application scenarios for human-robot coexistence. In May 2025, the company won two industry awards including the “NVIDIA Award” and was successfully selected for the NVIDIA Inception Program. The company has independently developed a third-generation linear actuator, effectively controlling hardware costs while improving robot motion performance. It has already launched multiple related robot products, expanding the application scenarios for humanoid robots based on its proprietary technology.
